Dillon 550B Progressive Reloading Press

I have been the owner of the 550B progessive press from Dillon for about a year now. All I can say is what a machine! Dillon presses are made in Tempe, Arizona and are outstanding quality machines.

I have loaded with other brands, but when I started shooting competitively, I found them lacking in production speed and consistency.

Of all the Dillon presses available, I chose the 550B mainly due to the fact that it was NOT an auto indexing press, so that I can still use it as a single stage press for my hunting loads and small batch loading using non-Dillon brand dies. When using this press I highly recommend using Dillon dies as they have radiused mouths for progressve loading speed, but they will accept all brands of dies.

What I am most impressed with is the powder measure system. After thousands and thousands of rounds loaded, it is amazingly consistent. I check my powder drops every 25 rounds or so out of habit, and have yet to find one single load out of whack once the drop is set.

Dillon makes it very easy to change between calibres, and the 550B will load 160 different pistol and rifle calibres. With an interchangable toolhead system, it takes about 10 minutes to change calibres. Just leave your dies in a toolhead, install the next calibre toolhead on the machine, set your powder drop and you are loading.

The Dillon dies are amazing. No more having to remove a die to clean it out or change your seating die from round nose to SWC. With the Dillon die, pull a clip, the innards fall out into your hand, clean it up or switch the bullet seat, slide it back up into the die head and replace the clip. Literally that quickly and never ever have to readjust. And Dillon die sets come with a seperate seating and crimp die, for far more consistant seating and crimping.

Dillon's customer service is simply out of this world. Test them out. Purposely break something.....call them and tell them its your fault that it is broken....there is a replacement on its way the SAME day at NO CHARGE!!!! Unbelievable, but true. When there is some issue with adjustment or you are having trouble with the machine, there is no such thing as tech support. Whoever answers the phone walks you right thru whatever it is, right then, right NOW. They know thier product and know it VERY well. And they speak ENGLISH!

The only down side, and the longer I use the press, its not really a downside for long.....they are not inexpensive. Delivered to my door, ready to load one calibre was $562.00. This is with a few extra peices and parts like extra parts kit, primer tubes, etc. However, with the amount of loading I do, the press paid for itself in ammo cost savings within 3 months. No kidding.
With practice and planning ahead, it is no challenge at all to load over 400 rounds per hour.
When anyone asked what press they should look at, I will never hesitate to recommend a Dillon, I have drunk the blue Kool-aid and liked it!

.